KUALA LUMPUR: The Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation is targeting a 10% reduction in the price of cooking oil within the next two weeks following a drop in palm oil prices.
Its chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa said he hoped that the industry, including manufacturers, would work together to reduce the price of cooking oil during the period.
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Annuar, who is also Communications and Multimedia Minister, said currently the price of unsubsidised cooking oil was still relatively high.
"Once again we seek the cooperation of all manufacturers and within a week or two from now we would like to see the price of cooking oil reduced by at least 10% from the current retail price.
"... we hope they will immediately reduce the price of cooking oil, just as fast as they raised their prices when the market price shot up previously," he told a press conference at Parliament building here Monday (July 18).
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Currently, the price of cooking oil is about RM42 for a 5kg bottle, said Annuar.
Therefore, he said the special task force had agreed for the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry to hold an engagement session with each manufacturer involved to convey the message that the reduction in cooking oil prices should be given priority and expedited.
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From July 1 to 15, he said a total of 9,493 inspections were conducted at 3,316 premises with palm oil worth RM2.1mil seized.
Meanwhile, he said the special task force was satisfied because chickens were sold below the ceiling price set with the national average weekly price until July 9 at RM9.22 with Pahang recording the lowest price at RM8.95 per kg.
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Apart from that, Annuar said from Jan 1 until July 17, a total of 521,995 inspections were conducted nationwide with the total seizures worth RM52mil.
Annuar said the country needed to make preparations due to the effects of high inflation being experienced by Malaysia's trading countries.
To that end, he said a team of economic experts would assist the special task force to form a more comprehensive framework of action.
"I give them a month to prepare a comprehensive action plan that can be presented to the committee so that the committee has a more robust framework to address the problems, then take action on the impact of inflation and rising prices of goods in the country," he said. - Bernama
